In the environment of mobile television (e.g. hand held television) there currently exist two complementary broadcasting techniques. Mobile TV technology offers consumers the chance to enjoy high quality terrestrial digital broadcasts along with voice telephony and Internet access all in a single wireless device. The digital video broadcast for hand-held (DVB-H) broadcasts Internet Protocol (IP) data-casts. This is an end-to-end broadcast system for the delivery of any type of digital content and services using IP based mechanisms that are optimised for devices with limitations on computational and battery resources.
An inherent part of IP data-cast (IPDC) is that it comprises a unidirectional DVD broadcast path that may be combined with a bidirectional mobile cellular interactive part. This means that IPDC is a valuable platform for enabling the convergence of services from broadcast media and telecommunications demand.
The file delivery method used in the IPDC is based on the FLUTE protocol. FLUTE (File Delivery Over Unidirectional Transport) delivers contents in files, which may contain any type of data (e.g. Audio, video, binary, still images, texts. ESG carriage return, meta-data etc.).
It is possible to access a web server using mobile equipment, for example using WIFI. However, WIFI coverage tends to be very limited and is generally only used in private areas or airports and the like. Although it is possible to connect to a web server using 2.5 G or 3 G communication means such as GPRS, EDGE or UMTS. In order to do this, it is also necessary to have a subscription which can be expensive and tends to be used by professionals and is not always attractive to public audiences of everyday people. New standards are emerging to broadcast TV on mobile equipment (e.g. DVB-H). Some of these standards define means for object transmission.
FIG. 1 depicts a known mobile internet infrastructure 100 and a separated Digital Video Broadcast infrastructure 102. A mobile user may access both TV channels and an internet site using a mobile device 104. TV channel may be broadcast using for example DVB-H in Europe. A video source 106 is broadcasted using a DVB-H head-end 108 which may include a DVB-H Encapsulator, a DVB-H Streamer or modulator 112 and an amplifier 114. A VHF/UHF signal 116 is emitted by the DVB-H head-end and is received by the mobile device 104. The mobile device may be a GSM phone or a PDA enabled to process DVB-H. In a parallel mode, the mobile device 150 may support conventional Web browser capabilities and can receive signals 118 from an access point 120 belonging to a GPRS/UMTS network 122 for example. The GPRS/UMTS network may access the internet 124 by means of a Telco gateway 126. The internet may access a web server 128 to obtain content for transmission to the user. The web server 128 may also be accessed by means of a non-mobile device, for example computer 130 which may be connected via a wired line such as PSTN, ADSL, etc.
Some of the problems that are encountered with the present systems and methods are set out as follows:
First there is a requirement for expensive subscriptions and wireless equipment able to support a communication stack able to reach the internet and a separate communication stack able to receive broadcast television. A further problem exists in that coverage for internet and TV broadcast are not necessarily equivalent in certain areas, some areas may have coverage of one, some may have coverage of another, and some may have coverage of both or neither.
Applicant's co-pending application Ser. No. 11/762,303 filed Jun. 13, 2007 discloses a method and apparatus to transfer and receive web objects and video media through the same media channel, and the entirety of its disclosure is hereby incorporated by reference. The matter of scheduling of the web objects is discussed therein, and the present invention relates to additional inventive features thereof.
One object of the present invention is to overcome at least some of the problems associated with prior art broadcasting methods and systems.
Another object of the present invention is to use new broadcast transmission means to transfer both DVB-H type objects and web type objects through the same media and to schedule the web type object in an intelligent manner.
A further object of the invention is to provide a method for broadcasting website to mobile equipment without requiring return channel means to indicate preferences, but instead to use predictions to assist with the scheduling.